voting

North Dakota will be moving toward “mail ballots” for the June primary, because of the COVID-19 virus.

Gov. Doug Burgum signed an executive order waiving the requirement that counties must have at least one polling place open. He said that gives counties the opportunity to conduct the election completely by mail.

A settlement has been reached in the lawsuit Spirit Lake, Standing Rock and other tribes brought against North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger over tribal IDs and other ballot access concerns.

The suit centered around the state’s ID requirements for voting. State law says a valid ID must have a person’s name, date of birth and physical address.  The tribes said many of their reservation residents only had a post office box number, not a street address.

At a warehouse in north Bismarck, the Secretary of State’s office is putting new voting devices through the paces.

"We're doing 'acceptance testing,'" said Secretary of State Al Jaeger. "We're making sure all the pieces we have received are working properly."

Jaeger said there are more than 900 pieces of equipment.

"We're checking everything out," Jaeger said.

New voting machines for North Dakota are set up in a room at the Capitol.

"We're putting them through the paces, said Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum. "We want to make sure they can handle our open primary, and any election we would throw at it."

It is the Secretary of State's job to certify the new devices, and de-certify the devices that are no longer used.

North Dakota will see an upgrade in its voting system.

The Legislature approved $12 million for a new system. Jaeger says $3 million of that comes from federal funds.

"We already had the bid in place for the voting system," said North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger. "So now that we have the funding, and the Legislature passed that part of the bill with an emergency clause, the funding is available now."

Jaeger said an executive steering committee will start the procurement process for the new system.

One hundred years ago, women were given the right to vote by Constitutional amendment.

And a North Dakota group is launching a two-year celebration.

The 19th Amendment was ratified August 18th, 1920.

"We're hoping to raise awareness of the importance of women getting the vote," said Susan Wefald of Bismarck, the co-chair of the Women's Suffrage Centennial Committee. "We will be hosting activities all over the state."

Wefald is asking people with photos and other documents concerning women voting to share those with the committee.

The state Senate has approved the Secretary of State’s budget – including money for new voting machines.

That budget includes $8.2 million to replace the voting devices, which Secretary of State Al Jaeger has said are outdated, and use a no-longer-supported operating system.

"We heard from a county organization that suggested if we didn't take this step, we could quite possibly see a serious malfunction or problem in our future elections," said Sen. John Grabinger (D-Jamestown). "In fact, I heard from my own county leaders, and they would concur."